Encore podcast: The Jack Benny-Johnny Carson Connection

In 1949, Jack Benny took advantage of new capital gains laws and moved his popular program from NBC to CBS, an immense boost to that network in ratings and prestige. At about the same time, a senior at the University of Nebraska named Johnny Carson was putting together his thesis, “How to Write Comedy for Radio,” a tape-recorded presentation filled with examples of Jack Benny’s work. Carson couldn’t have known it at the time, but within a few years Benny would become one of Carson’s biggest boosters – they formed a kind of mutual admiration society that would last until Benny’s death in 1974. Benny had been one of America’s dominant comedy voices during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s – and by utilizing tricks he’d learned from Benny, Carson, as host of “The Tonight Show” for thirty years, would become one of America’s dominant comedy voices during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

Sources:

Johnny Carson, by Henry Bushkin

King of the Night: The Life of Johnny Carson, by Laurence Leamer

“Red Skelton Butts Scenery, Sprains Neck,” Rome (GA) News-Tribune, August 18, 1954

“Comics’ Comics,” TV Guide, January 15, 1955

“Johnny Carson: Young Man with a Grin,” TV Guide, September 3, 1955

“Johnny Carson Defined Late-Night TV,”  Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2005

“How Jack Benny and Harry Conn Stumbled onto the Formula for Situation Comedy,” Humanities, Summer 2017

A Very Short History of TV Shows with Very Short Histories

What can you say about a TV show that dies after just one episode? We can think of a few things. Here’s a look at some of the most notorious examples, including a show that forced Jackie Gleason to apologize to America, a “Laugh-In” ripoff that was cancelled midway through its only episode and a sitcom about the home life of the Hitlers. Here are their stories — their pathetic stories of massive, embarrassing failure.

Sources:

The Worst TV Shows Ever, by Bart Andrews

” ‘Co-Ed Fever’ Expires,” The Bonham (TX) Daily Favorite, February 11, 1979

“Steve’s Reason Why Not,” Lisa de Moraes, The Washington Post, January 22, 2006

Encore podcast: "The Rise and Fall of 'Dragnet'

In the summer of 1949, “Dragnet” premiered on NBC radio. It was a show that sounded like no other thanks to creator-star Jack Webb’s obsession with authenticity. “Dragnet” then moved to TV and ran for most of the 1950s. Its theme song and opening disclaimer — “The story you are about to see is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent” — became part of pop culture history. During the turbulent late 1960s, “Dragnet” was revived, and it hadn’t changed — but the world had, and authority was something to be questioned rather than celebrated. We look at the influence of “Dragnet” and Webb’s evolution into an outspoken advocate of police officers.

Sources:

“Webb’s Days Before Friday,” Jim Ramsburg’s Gold Time Radio

My Name’s Friday: The Unauthorized But True Story of Dragnet and the Films of Jack Webb, by Michael J. Hayde

Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection: From Sleuths to Superheroes, by Mitzi M. Brunsdale

“Jack Webb, TV’s Most Misunderstood Man,” TV Guide, March 23, 1957

“Jack Webb Returns to the Good Old Days,” Richard Warren Lewis, TV Guide, October 19, 1968

The 1960s: What We Listened To

New podcast alert: David and his brother Steve and reminisce about the music we grew up listening to, from Duke Ellington to Sarah Vaughn to the Monkees to Allen Sherman's 1963 megahit "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah." With special appearances by Jackson Browne, Louis Armstrong and the Guess Who.